I heard a rumour yesterday that has been confirmed today that Canadian brewer Unibroue is stopping all exports to concentrate on the North American market. Apparently the brewery is operating at full capacity and exporting is cutting into the local market. They aren't going to expand the brewery to cater for the exporting North American market is more profitable and provides quicker in sales.
It's devastating news for me. If I could only drink from one international brewery, it would be Unibroue and looking at their website I realise that I may have inadvertently stolen one of my favourite lines from them in "Drink Less. Drink Better."
Apart from enjoying them myself, I invariably use at least one Unibroue beer in the beer and food matching classes that I host, especially the Beer Appreciation for Women classes. Serving up a glass of La Fin du Monde to a sceptical non-beer drinker was inevitably a delight. Watching someone with a prejudice against beer, believing that every beer tastes like a bland lager or Guinness try their Belgian-inspired strong golden ale is priceless. As the aromas and the flavour hit, you can almost see them visibly confused and try and make sense of what they're tasting. I don't know how many times I have heard, "but it doesn't taste like beer" which provides one of those job-affirming feel good moments in beer educating. Unfortunately, I hear just as often, "gee, I like that...but I couldn't drink a lot of it" as if I was offering them a 6-pack to drink after the mowing - which shows another unfortunate perception of beer.
There are hundreds of other breweries, obviously but scrolling through their list of beers and knowing that they aren't going to be easily available - if at all - is like hearing that your favourite band has broken up...only Unibroue hasn't gone through a drug-inspired, experimental, visit India phase first.
I need a beer to cry into.